I am a Freelance Designer, Mixed Media Artist and Illustrator. I have my own range of stencils which I sell in my shop (link below) and design stamps for Rubber Dance
I am a Mixed up Mag pARTner and regularly have my designs published in the Mag. I am also regularly published in Craft Stamper and a contributing Artist to a book called Learning to Paint made easy.
I teach mixed media art and alteration as well as art journaling.

Friday, 23 October 2015

Ooh nearly spooked myself!

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are all well. I am so enjoying the beautiful colours of Autumn; It is still quite pleasant, here in Essex, colder, but most days are bright. I like October, as its cold enough to change the colours of the trees and plants, but not too cold to make them drop. Then there's Halloween, and the excuse to indulge our darker, shadow side in our crafty makes.

This leads me to let you know, that a new challenge starts today at That's Crafty, and the theme is Haunted/Halloween. Believe me, there's some very spooky inspirations over on the blog from my team mates, so pop over there and have a look, if you Dare!

And of course, if you enter the challenge there's the chance you could win a £20 voucher to spend in the shop. So come on! tune into your darkness and let your creativity go wild.

Here is my creation for this challenge.

I used a 6x6 grey/white board and gave it a coat of Crackle Paint. Once dry I applied Fresco Acrylic Paints in Blue Oyster with a brayer and then using Caramel randomly added the colour, again with brayer and then edged the board with French Roast.

I love how grungy this looks.

I then added some stamping from HP Halloween 03 from Paper Artsy using Archival Ink. I sprinkled on some Neutral Bisters and spritzed with water letting it drip. I dabbed most of it off just leaving a thin layer. I wasn't keen how the headstone looked like it was floating, so using a black Stabilo All pencil, I added shadow and depth which gave the appearance of being in a room. For the skulls on the floor I used Stained Wallnut Embossing powder to give some texture.

For my next element I used a face I had painted in my journal. I shrunk the Picture and printed it off the size I needed. This is the face below. You will notice that I cut it from its background which I liked but did not fit with the room.

Once I stuck it in place with Matt Medium from DecoArt, I started to work on the background. I know that's all back to front, but in this instant it worked.

I added some stencils from That's Crafty to the side and back wall, which I think is very effective.

Below we get closer to the ghost popping out of the wall. The red drips are Media Mist from DecoArt.

Well there you have it. I hope either I or my teamies have inspired you to play along. Don't forget to follow the rules to be in with a chance. Looking forward to see what you all make.

Well, yes, I can see that this would spook you! The face is very unnerving and the skulls are very creepy in the shadows there... love how you created the depth and dimension of the room around the tombstone... fabulous!Alison xx